OSHA Injury Report: Heartland Food Products Group - Plant

At a glance

Where did this happen?

What was the outcome?

Before the incident

Bulk Chemical Tank project required the installation of temporary system that will provide Caustic and Acid to the Clean in Place (CIP) systems. This will allow for decommissioning for the old system and tanks while the new systems and Tanks are being installed. The temporary Buffer Totes and transfer pumps to the distribution header and the smaller Transfer pumping stations required to add chemical to the Buffer Totes had been installed and were in the initial testing phase.

What happened

The incident occurred at the Acid Transfer pump that is used to add Acid to the Buffer Tote. The system uses an Air Diaphragm pump as the motive to transfer the Acid into the top of the Buffer Tote. The compressed air supply line was installed with inline needle valves and an Air Regulator. The needle valves do not have a handle and use a small round screw cap to open and close the valves. This is the wrong type of valve for this application. The Screw Cap also has a lock nut that can be placed in a position that does not allow the needle valve to be fully closed. The Acid Transfer Pump had been installed an estimated 2 hours prior to the incident. It appears that the needle valve was not fully closed and compressed air was being supplied to the air diaphragm pump. As pressure built up the pump began to actuate very slowly and overfilled the Buffer Tote. The overfilled tote created the reaction between the Acid and the Aluminum cage on the Tote. Resources responded to the event and mit

Injury or illness

Inhalation of corrosive vapors.

Object or substance involved

Acid and digested materials - corrosive vapors inhalation.

Summary line

090525 - [REDACTED] Warehouse D Chemical Exposure

Employee and industry

When (timing detail)

Source

Data from OSHA ITA Form 300/301 electronic submissions, filing year 2025. ITA Case Detail records are establishment-reported submissions, not OSHA inspections — no per-record IMIS deep link exists.